Long story short I had a MoBo that would not boot past the post screen, after much deliberation I replaced the motherboard. I get that new motherboard and can play around in the BIOS (that was a breath of f---ing fresh air), I update the BIOS to the latest version, boot it and I have a windows error. Well, that sucks. I pop in the windows disc and go to repair, but I could not boot from the disc. I booted from the disc on my laptop, so the disc is fine. The MoBo fully recognizes the disc drive in the bios, but cannot boot from any discs. I tried Dban, and a vista and xp discs. Nothing. When ever the hard drive is plugged in it reverts to the windows error reboot loop that seems to be fairly common on ASUS MoBos.

Help. I beg.

I got BF3 on xbox and it's poop. I would have to spend around $400 to replace my MoBo, so I just saved money but dropped my RAM from 1600 to 1333 and bought a $50 board. Also to note all of my problems started after about 7 hours after getting an HD 5970 that just destroys BF3 and makes it look glorious. I still have reason to believe a power surge may have caused these problems but my PSU (Antec 850w TruPower Quattro) still seems solid. But I have no damn clue what is up with my hard drive being corrupted or my disc drive not working. I was about ready to teach my computer how to swim but I did the smart thing instead; I smoked a blunt and implored the wise men on the internet.

You NEVER update the bios unless there's a significant reason to update it, as in, you're having a problem that a fix is mentioned for in the release notes for any of the bios updates that are newer than the version the mboard already has, or if the mboard doesn't recognize your cpu properly unless the bios is updated !

Flashing the bios is the riskiest thing you can do with a mboard ! The flash chip can even physically fail the first time you attempt to flash the bios, and you can end up with a mboard that will not boot !

Flashing the bios often DOES NOT update the Cmos contents of the bios automatically ! If the Cmos contents of the bios do not match what they're supposed to be for the bios version, it's likely the bios version will not work correctly !To make sure the Cmos contents match what they're supposed to be for the bios version, go into the bios Setup and load bios defaults, Save bios settings ! ..........

"....boot it and I have a windows error."

When you have installed Windows (2000, XP, Vista, or Windows 7) when the hard drive was connected to one mboard, then remove the hard drive and connect it to a different mboard and attempt to boot the computer from the same Windows installation, if the hardware on the second mboard is more than a little different from that on the first mboard, Windows will often NOT LOAD normally ! In some cases Windows will automatically reboot the computer !

A Repair installation of Windows Vista will fix your problems caused by the mboard being different without you losing the data that's already on the same partition Windows itself was installed on.

E.g. see this - I tried it and it worked fine - but NOTE that it takes a LONG TIME (at least 3 hours as I recall) to finish running - don't assume that it has frozen the computer - it will finish running eventually.

(I have an OEM Vista Home Premium DVD with no SP updates - I repaired an OEM Vista Home Premium with no SP updates installation).

"I pop in the windows disc and go to repair, but I could not boot from the disc. I booted from the disc on my laptop, so the disc is fine."

The Boot Order or similar settings in the bios Setup must be suitable for the bios booting the computer from a bootable CD or DVD.

CD drive or similar must be in the Boot Order or similar list before - above - any hard drive or similar listing - but it doesn't have to be listed first. If you did / do change a setting there, Save bios settings, to make the change "stick" .

If that setting is correct, if the bios detects there is already an operating system on the hard drive, you see a line while booting "Press any key to boot from CD." or similar. When you see that line, press the specified key, while that line is on the screen (usually you have 5 seconds in which you must do that). ....

If you don't see that line while booting and you're sure the Boot Order or similar settings are correct....- if you have only one optical (CD or DVD) drive, or in any case, make sure the data cable connection is okay for the drive(s).

Check your SATA data cables. The connector on each end should "latch" into the socket on the drive and on the mboard, or on the drive controller card - it should not move when you merely brush your hand against it near the socket - if it does, mere vibration can cause a poor connection of it - use another SATA data cable that does "latch", or tape the connector in place.(There is a slight projection or bump on one side of the outside of the connector that "latches" it into the socket - it's easily broken off or damaged)

It is common to un-intentionally damage IDE data cables, especially while removing them - the 80 wire ones are more likely to be damaged. What usually happens is the cable is ripped at either edge and the wires there are either damaged or severed, often right at a connector or under it's cable clamp there, where it's hard to see - if a wire is severed but it's ends are touching, the connection is intermittent, rather than being reliable. Another common thing is for the data cable to be separated from the connector contacts a bit after you have removed a cable - there should be no gap between the data cable and the connector - if there is press the cable against the connector to eliminate the gap.80 wire data cables are also easily damaged at either edge if the cable is sharply creased at a fold in the cable.

Try another data cable if in doubt.

80 wire data cables must have the proper end connector connected to the mboard IDE header - usually that's blue, but in any case it's the one farther from the middle connector on a 3 connector data cable.

- if you have more than one optical drive, some bioses will only attempt to boot from a bootable optical disk in the first optical drive the bios detects.- insert the bootable disk in a different drive

- or - go into the bios Setup - there will be ether be- a list of optical drives - it's often near the Boot Order or similar settings - the drives are usually listed by their model number - the drive you want to boot a bootable disk from must be first in the list, Save bios settings.- or - there is more than one optical drive listed in the Boot Order or similar list - they're often listed generically - the drive you want to boot a bootable disk from must be first in the list, Save bios settings. ...................

The MoBo is a piece of crap ASUS P5G41T-M LX3 and it will not recognize media from either of the disc drives that I have, and both are working. The boot order was correct, I should have mentioned it I earlier, that's the first thing I checked. The screen goes black and says "Error loading windows" with both disc drives and working versions of vista and 7. This does not make sense.

"Flashing the bios often DOES NOT update the Cmos contents of the bios automatically ! If the Cmos contents of the bios do not match what they're supposed to be for the bios version, it's likely the bios version will not work correctly !To make sure the Cmos contents match what they're supposed to be for the bios version, go into the bios Setup and load bios defaults, Save bios settings ! "

"The screen goes black and says "Error loading windows" with both disc drives and working versions of vista and 7. "

That's not a message generated by the bios.You can't get that message unless - the mboard booted from the disk, then there was a problem - or - the mboard did not boot from the disk, then it attempted to load the Windows installation that was already on the hard drive, but the hardware on the new mboard is too different from that on the original mboard

What do you mean by "working versions of vista and 7" ?An original Vista or Windows 7 DVD ? or a DVD that has a copy of an already installed Vista or Windows 7 installation ?

"The drive will read media now that I have installed windows"

How did you install Windows if you couldn't get the the mboard / optical drives to detect a bootable optical disk ?

It's extremely unlikely there's anything wrong with a new mboard.

Data cable connection problems, and the bios being able to boot a bootable disk from only one drive, can cause your problem, as I said in response 3.

Being able to read data on the disk and the feature of the drive that allows it to detect a bootable disk are two separate things. I've come across some optical drives that feature no longer wiorks for.

If the optical drives are the same ones that were used with the original mboard, if the mboard was damaged by a power spike or surge, then the drives could have been damaged by the same thing - in that case the drive's bootable disk detection feature may not work no matter which mboard you connect the drive to. ........

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